OHIO – Three Mexican nationals were named in a 24-count indictment charging them with selling black tar heroin across Northern Ohio, federal officials said.
Victor Morales-Garcia, 38, of Columbus, Mario Perez Sanchez, age unknown, and Pedro Ortega-Gomez, 36, both of Madison, Ohio, are charged with conspiring to sell black tar heroin in Lake, Cuyahoga, Erie and Huron counties, officials stated.
“This is a drug trafficking group whose tentacles spread from Mexico to all over Northern Ohio,” U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach said. “They preyed on people for profit.”
The men had customers from Huron County who travelled on a daily basis to buy heroin.
Most of these sales took place between the far west suburbs of Cuyahoga County to Painesville in Lake County, according to court documents.
This group used numerous men as drug couriers to deliver the heroin to customers. Many of these couriers were brought illegally to the United States from the Nayarit/Tepic area of Mexico to the Painesville area with the promise of working on a farm or in an automobile garage, officials said.
Once in Ohio, these individuals became couriers for the drug trafficking group, according to court documents.
On April 6, authorities said law enforcement officials stopped a car being driven by Gomez and discovered a large bag of heroin, all individually packaged in small balloons. Subsequent searches led to the discovery of a .22-caliber revolver, numerous wire transfer receipts showing thousands of dollars being wired to Mexico, drug ledgers and cash, according to court documents.
“These three defendants operated a revolving door distribution center of black tar heroin,” Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cleveland Office said. “This is another great example of the tireless, collaborative efforts by the Northern Ohio Law Enforcement Task Force to take suppliers of dangerous narcotics off our streets. “
Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.